Augustin needs to pass a physical with the Bulls on Thursday. He was waived by the Toronto Raptors on Monday.

The Bulls need some depth in the backcourt — Derrick Rose is out for the season, Jimmy Butler is still injured, Mike James is out (not to mention Luol Deng and Joakim Noah). Which means on Tuesday night the Bulls Kirk Hinrich, started rookie Tony Snell at the guard spot. And Marquis Teague got time off the bench.

In that situation, Augustin is an improvement. He can provide depth.

He’s not a game changer for the struggling Bulls, however. He was part of the Pacers rotation last season but they let him walk. Augustin signed as a free agent in Toronto but struggled to get minutes (he has played in just 10 games this season). When the Raptors landed Greivis Vasquez in the Rudy Gay trade Augustin was no longer needed and was waived.

Ideally Augustin is really a three-point specialist (although he shot just 1-of-11 from three in Toronto this year). He’s fairly quick with the ball but he struggles to finish in the paint and has struggled from the midrange. His defense will have Tom Thibodeau pulling out what is left of his hair.

The always-entertaining Brian Scalabrine, currently playing in Italy for Benetton Treviso, recently did an interview with HoopsHype.com. In it, he addressed a variety of topics, including last season’s Bulls team, which he described as “not really close” to winning a championship, in comparison to the two Boston Celtics teams he was a part of that made it to the NBA Finals.

“You lack experience at playoff level. Derrick Rose needs to go through the bumps and bruises of the playoffs to get over the hump,” said the popular reserve power forward, who won a title in 2008. “If you watched the games against Miami, the Heat knew how to get over the hump.
“Dwyane Wade and LeBron James both have been in the finals and Dwyane has performed in the finals,” he continued, perhaps taking a subtle jab at the much-maligned James.

“Michael Jordan had to get through the Pistons, and the Pistons had to get through the Celtics. It’s like once you go through that, then that’s when you become a better team.”

Click through to the full article to see what the popular former Celtics and Bulls forward thinks about the time he’s spent in Italy, how he’s still a fan favorite overseas, and what the current free agent’s plans for the future are.

Hawks 93, Heat 89 (OT): These two teams combined to take 61 shots from three on the night even though combined they made just 14 (23 percent). That kind of sums up this game — a lot of bad decisions and missed shots. This game was very entertaining. It was filled with sloppy but it was still fun to watch.

Al Horford sprained his ankle in the second half but said after the game is was not that serious. We’ll see what the reports are as Wednesday wears on but it doesn’t sound bad.

Early on Atlanta had its chance – Miami without Chris Bosh started Joel Anthony at the four and the lack of offense at the spot really hurt the Heat. Bosh is not the best Heat player but he may have the biggest drop off of talent behind him. Miami scored just 11 first quarter points and shot 31 percent for the half. But the Hawks didn’t take advantage — they ran a slow offense, pounded the ball a lot and set up isolations that played into the hands of the Heat defense. In essence, they were still the Hawks.

Then in the second quarter the Heat went small, moving LeBron James to the four spot and they started get out in transition (for a team full of athletes the Hawks are shockingly bad at transition defense). After a 12-0 run you had a game again.

It was a thrilling end of the game filled with more slop. There was Mo Evans taking a bad three-pointer then committing a foul at midcourt as the Heat came back up. The Hawks ran a beautifully designed pick-and-roll open for an ally-oop dunk and Joe Johnson threw a lob pass off the top of the backboard.

The Heat got a last shot to win in regulation and it was a Wade isolation that went nowhere and led to a cross-court pass to LeBron for a very deep three. Not pretty.

It wasn’t all bad. LeBron, back from injury, made some quality plays in overtime, a big three and a driving layup. But the erratic Hawks attacked the rim and had one of their strong stretches for those five key minutes and got the victory. Jamal Crawford and Joe Johnson looked sharp when it mattered.

Fun little stat courtesy ESPN’s Tom Haberstroh: Joel Anthony had 16 rebounds (8 offensive) and no shot attempts. The only other players to do that in the modern era: Dennis Rodman and Wilt Chamberlain.

Bobcats 83, Bulls 82: The winning team in this game shot 40 percent and was 0-of-13 from three. It fits our sloppy theme for the night.

The Bulls were on the fourth game in five nights and playing without Carlos Boozer (making the starting front line Taj Gibson and Kurt Thomas), but they put up a fight. Derrick Rose almost carried them with 33 points. The Bulls just made some mistakes of execution at the end. Such as Ronnie Brewer passing up a layup to kick out to Luol Deng for a three. An open three, but no coach wants you to pass up a layup for a three (not even Paul Westhead).

For the Bobcats, that’s two wins over the Bulls in a week. Wins are wins, doesn’t matter how they come. Charlotte made the plays in the clutch — Stephen Jackson had a key fade away from the elbow, Gerald Wallace played his best ball at the end.